Baby Wings
by Poisonrose22.5
Summary: What happened before the beginning of Maximum ride? what were everyone's favorite bird kids like as babies and toddlers? find out here. It rocks, people, come on, just try it out. Sorry about the shortness of the chapters, but it's quality over quantity.
1. Maximum

Jeb smiled as he walked down the corridor in the antiseptic smelling rooms of the School. His child was being born, _his child_, just at the end of the hall. It would be the first of its kind, a leader in a new age of recombinant forms.

Leader, best, maximum. Maximum. He liked the sound of that. Maybe he would name the child Maximum. They could call it Max for short. That was a suitable name for a boy, and for a girl, well, the child was strange enough already, the name would just reflect that.

He walked into the tiny hospital-esque room. There was Martinez, in a hospital gown, her sweat soaked face a mask of pain. She smiled weakly at him as he walked into the room, and he returned it.

She was a beautiful woman, that he could not deny. He hoped the child looked like her, especially her gorgeous chocolate brown eyes. Lost in thought, he was jerked back to life by the doctor saying, "It's a girl!"

he looked at the beautiful child, still smeared with blood and allowed himself one moment of pity, one moment of sorrow for this little child who would never lead a normal life, never be a normal person. He picked up the child, cradling her lightly in his arms.

"Hello my dear Maximum. Ready to save the world?"

The child cooed happily and he chuckled to himself. "Not yet dear Maximum, but soon, sooner than you could ever imagine." He set the child down and, sighing to himself, exited the room.


	2. Fang

**Ok, so one of my imaginary friends has reminded me of something I forgot in chapper numero uno. That's right kids! The disclaimer. So here goes.**

_**Disclaimer:**_ **I don't own **_**nothin'**_**. Except for Herrington. He's mine.**

4 months passed quietly. Maximum began to learn to walk and spoke her first word 'doc'ta'. One day, while Max was taking a nap, a man walked up to the door. Jeb quietly stepped outside, shutting the door behind him. He recognized the man from around the lab. His name was Herrington.

Herrington made a great show of handing Jeb a bundle of blankets. "Your new charge," he said. Jeb took the bundle. It was a baby, maybe a few weeks old, Italian by the looks of him, with olive skin and curly dark brown hair.

Jeb smiled. "Hello little one," he said. He turned to Herrington. "So, what's his story?" he asked quietly. "Teen, heroin addict mom, doesn't know who the father is. Born prematurely. She was told that he died."

"Very well," Jeb said. He looked down at the baby. Though he could only be weeks old, the child somehow managed a look of uncaring boredom. Jeb smiled, offering his finger to suck on. The child looked at the finger like 'that all you got for me?' and then grudgingly opened his mouth.

"Be careful," Herrington said. "He bi-" but it was too late. Jeb felt a sharp pain and withdrew his finger, staring incredulously at the small drop of blood on the end. He looked at the baby, who somehow seemed to be smirking.

This weeks-old baby already had a tooth. "And a sharp one too," Jeb muttered. "Like a fang." The baby seemed to like this. "Do you like fang child? Do you want to be named Fang?" Fang cooed. Jeb smiled again as he took the baby into the little room.

**So? How do ya like it? R&R please! ** **I tried a different style of spacing, to surreptitiously make the story seem longer, because let me tell you, it looked really short when I typed it out. Which do you like better? REVIEW!!!!!**


	3. Iggy

_**Disclaimer: **_** I still own nothing except Herrington. Unfortunately.**

Maximum at ten months could wobble along and string together half-coherent sentences. Fang at six months had a vocabulary of 13 words, including bite, food, and NO.

Then Herrington appeared again. Jeb greeted him at the door, sliding it shut silently as he walked out.

The child Herrington held was bigger this time, maybe 4 or 5 months. They were really pushing their luck with this. Jeb knew that they were aware that 5 months was too old for the child to function properly. If the baby was over five months old when it was experimented on, it cut the lifespan of the experiment in half.

He looked down at the baby. The child had pale skin, ice blue eyes and fiery red hair. "So?" "His father once worked with Anne. We've been keeping tabs on him since birth.

The parents somehow knew that he was being watched, because one of them was always with him. Then his mom got really sick. While she was getting loaded into the ambulance, our recon team saw its chance and nabbed him."

"Any news about the mother?" "In the ICU at the local hospital. They say she's in critical condition, might die." Jeb looked down at the baby, Subject 3. "We're gonna take good care of you."

3 weeks later, Jeb was showing a film on the proper making and use of bombs and explosives, to a few workers who had had a little…………mishap in the explosives lab.

He had had to bring Max, Fang, and subject 3, and they sat in the back with him, Max and Fang on either side, and Subject 3 in his lap.

Max had her hands over her eyes and Fang was looking pointedly away from the screen, but every time something went off, subject three would say "fie, fie" and clap his pudgy hands together.

"That's right little one, fire. When a bomb goes off it _ignites_ things. What with your obvious interest in fire, and that hair of yours, we could certainly call you Ignite. Can you say _ignite_?"

"Ig...i?" Jeb laughed at his pronunciation. Hmmm, he thought, Ignites a bit of a mouthful. How did he say it? Igi……Iggi…….Iggy?

"Would you like to be called Iggy little one?" The baby smiled. "Iggy it is then."

"**What!?" you are exclaiming in indignation. "Iggy does not have 'flaming red hair'!!" well, actually it's entirely plausible. I have never **_**ever**_** met a baby who has the same color hair from birth to adolescence. I am now a honey blond, and when I was born, I had red hair. So there, I win. (joking!)**

**(and just to make you squirm, I'm waiting a week before I post the next chapter [insert evil laugh])**

**And I want ten comments. Count 'em, 10. (Wow, I'm ambitious!)**


	4. 3 years pass

**I'm back! And still full of EVIL! You thought you were going to get Nudge now didn't you? Well, actually, I'm sorry about that. But three years passed, and I just couldn't ignore the time difference. I mean, not much happens in a few months with a couple of babies, but three years, when the brain is developing most? Can't ignore that people.**

**Much thanks to OutsideJokes, . ., biteoutoflife, weirdpeopleruletheworld, kyhfk, bookworm, Brambleberry or Lionflight, Silverclaw teller of tails and ** _|0Y** for reviewing. Don't you feel special. **

**Bookworm, as I explained at the bottom of the chapter, peoples hair colors are never the same when they're babies.**

_|0Y**, I'm not exactly sure what you're getting at, but ok……….**

**Anyhoo, on with the dreaded disclaimer.**

_**Disclaimer**_**: I (still) don't own Maximum Ride. Or the characters in the fantastic volume. *sigh***

The years flew by. Jeb watched in wonder as each child aged, speeded along by genetic engineering. They were so different from anything he'd seen before.

Fang was the first to really comprehend the situation, and from a young age he preferred to watch, his small dark eyes taking in everything, and giving nothing away.

Max was exactly the opposite; she followed Jeb around everywhere, trying to help him with his tasks. This always made Jeb smile.

Iggy retained his interest in fire; he spent a lot of time in the explosives lab, watching with wide eyes as the workers carefully created and tested small-scale bombs.

When Max turned two, Jeb began instructing her in flight. She was shaky at first, but she learned quickly, and was soon helping the boys learn as well.

The only bad part was the testing. Jeb knew it was wrong, and watching the children hooked up to monitors and injected with fluids, to the point where they screamed and cried, was sad, but he knew it must happen, after all this was first and foremost a research facility.

As the children aged, they changed. They were taller and thinner than most children were their age, and they grew at an escalated rate. Fangs curls straightened and darkened, while Iggys hair faded to strawberry blond.

Jeb watched them grow, watched as they began to comprehend, dreading the day when they would understand that this was not a game, that out there, not every child lived in a crate, or was tormented and tested every day of their life. Because then, that day, they might really come to hate him.

At three, the children had a slightly heightened mental capacity, and the scientists thought it safe to add more to what they had already created, to make the children better. The first day of experimenting Jeb got news. A lab worker was pregnant.

**Next up, Nudge! Does anyone have an idea on how she got the name Nudge? I'm (temporarily) stumped. And if anyone is wondering why it's been more than a week, I was grounded. That's right. My mother has no sympathy for my fans.**


	5. Nudge!

**Much thanks to all my reviewers. I got such a flood of reviews that I just can't name you all.**

**NO, the chapters are not long because the scenes are not long. I've been trying to stretch them out, but it doesn't work.**

**Jo'spov, wow! Thanks, that's high praise!**

**Tinker4939, thanks. You're right.**

_**D to the isclaimer:**_** (Wow that utterly failed.) Anyway, I do not own any Maximum Ride characters………(yet)**

The lab worker in question was one Monique Jameson, resident of Tipisco AZ. Knowing what happened when word got out, she had tried to hide it for as long as possible, but at five months, it had become impossible to conceal.

As soon as the pregnancy had been reported, she had handed in her resignation. Now Jeb sat before her, trying to calm her down.

"Now, Monique, this is a hard choice, but it's a choice we have to make. I, myself have given a child to this organization, and now look at her, blooming into a strong young girl." Monique had tears in her eyes.

"It's different for you, don't you see?" she said angrily. "You had no personal connection with the woman you had the child with! It was all 'in the name of science!' I love my boyfriend! And I love this baby!"

Jeb smiled. "If you stayed here, you would be able to watch over your child. Of course, no physical contact would be allowed, and you would on no account be able to confess your motherhood to them, but you could watch your baby grow."

Monique looked at him, tears now streaming freely down her face. "No. I refuse to stay here while you experiment on my child to the point of death. But I am curious. What is this 'choice' you speak of?"

"I am afraid the choice is either give in, or die. You are free to chose death for the both of you, if you are not inclined to let your child live." Monique gasped, and Jeb knew he had her convinced. He saw plainly in his eyes that this woman would do anything to keep her daughter alive.

He pushed the slip of paper handing over the child towards her, and she shakily signed it. He smiled his most encouraging smile at her, and took her hand, leading her away from the table. "Now walk this way, we need to do some amniocentesis tests."

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Four months later, the perfectly healthy baby arrived. Monique held the child close. "Will you name her after me?" she whispered to Jeb. "Of course." He gently took the baby from her arms and carried it away.

In a few weeks, little Monique was ready to be put with the other children. Jeb carefully carried her into the room, and gently unlatched the door to Max's crate. Max looked up. "Hello max, I've brought a new little friend."

She took in the baby in his arms. "Hi baby," she said quietly. He placed the baby next to her in the crate. "Think you can manage to not roll over onto her in the middle of the night?" he gave him a stiff salute. "Aye cap'n!' she said.

The next day, Jeb walked in on a disgruntled and sleepless looking Max. "That little _nudger_ kept me awake all night!" she complained. Jeb smiled. "Just wait until she's a little older, then you won't have to share a cage." He said.

But from then on, Max Fang, and Iggy all fell into the habit of calling the baby Nudger, which eventually shortened to Nudge.

**Soooooo….. whadda ya think? And HAHA! It's long(er…) so anyhoo… does anybody know how old Iggy is when he loses his vision? If no one does, he'll be like, 7 or something. (you will find that I often will 'ask the audience' so to speak. I WANT your feedback!!!!!!) R&R por favor?**


	6. CondensaionGazzy! finally

Hi. I'm finally back. After what feels like years in hibernation, I have decided to grace your computer screens with a story. Don't keel over from excitement. I wrote this because today I was on my computer and realized I couldn't remember Herrington's name, or how to spell it. I wrote it Harrison at first, and then tried to spell it like one of my classmates. (Who won't be a classmate much longer! Tomorrow = last day of school!)

On an unrelated note, I have come across a bit of a roadblock here. Nothing happens. In the three years between when Nudge comes into the picture and when Gazzy is introduced, absolutely nothing of consequence happens. So, for your sanity and mine, I'll give you the condensed version, and we'll speed things right along.

**The older three realize their lives suck, Nudge is annoying, Jeb convinces them that he's the "good guy". The end**

**Three years later……….**

"I got a call." Jeb looked up from the paperwork on his desk. "Oh?" Herrington smiled. "A woman says she's willing to donate her baby. Says some psychic told her she'll have two kids, but she'll give them up to make the world a better place. I guess she thinks _this _ is the way.Lunatic." He laughed.

Jeb sat, stunned. A woman willing to give up her child? They had gotten these children through trickery and deceit, but could there be a better way?

"…Months pregnant. We'll- Dr. Batchelder?" Jeb snapped back to attention. "Yes, very good Herrington. Right along"

Three months later, Herrington walked again into Jeb's office, carrying a child in his arms. "I've taken the liberty of naming this one for you. I hear those wacky names you call those kids, so here's the one for this one. Gasman."

Jeb didn't have time to ask why when a tiny * poot * came from the baby. "Well, I'll think about it" he said, taking the baby and leading it into the children's room.

When Nudge saw the child in Jeb's arms, she ran up to him on pudgy little legs, bouncing up and down and asked, "isitagirlisitagirlisitagirlisitagirlisitagirlisitagirlisitagirlisitagirl?" "No," Jeb said, smiling. "It's a boy."

"Cool!" Iggy said, holding his hand out to Fang for a high-five. Fang regarded the hand coolly, then raised his own and smacked it across Iggy's palm.

Iggy volunteered to share his crate, and they helped Jeb set it up. The boys fell about laughing whenever Gasman showed off his "talent" and in the end Max, and then Nudge joined them. Within a week, Iggy was regretting his choice, and the child 'gasman' was a solid part of their lives.

Yaay, It's done!

**I Wiki'd the flock. TOTAL has more on him than Iggy does. (Insert angryface)**

**R&R&R&R&R&R&R?**

**I wanna lot of reviews for this one. Just tell me your feelings on it. Love it? Tell me. Hate it? Tell me. Think it was so mediocrely insignificant that you can't think of a single thing to post about it? Tell me that, too.**


	7. sightless

**Ok. So, before we begin this chapter, I think you deserve an explanation for my loooooong absence. When my computer died, I was crushed, because this one is total trash and almost impossible to work with. I didn't do anything for a while because I hung on to some infantile hope that it could be salvaged. When we'd tried everything, two things were happening simultaneously. My father told me that if I could save up some cash, he'd give me his old laptop for a fraction of the price. It was also nearing the end of the school year, and every teacher and their sister seemed to want to give us some humongeous project. (4 power points, a science fair, a poetry journal where we needed tons of cutouts and 6-10 original thought inspiring poems, a huge decorated panel thing about a book we'd read, tons o' math etc…) and those combined things helped to drive this out of my head. I also had some serious writers block. I know it's really no excuse, and you probably want me to get on with the story now, but I thought I should explain myself.**

**Alrighty then, I'm pretty much completely redoing this, because the original was horrible. **

Max POV:

The whitecoats came into the room again. I was really scared they'd take me, because they like to do stuff to me. Jeb calls it 'spearmints', but I looked it up and spearmints are like a plant or something, so I don't know what he's talking about.

But today they took Iggy. I reached out to him as they lead him away, and I knew he knew how much I wanted to help him. At first, I tried to help them when they got taken, but the whitecoats took us so much it was real hard, and I just ended up getting hurt.

Iggy looked really scared, he's the most scared of all of us when they take him. I felt really sad for him because I know how much it scares him. .

Iggy POV:

The whitecoats came into our room and tried to take me. I was really scared, because they do scary stuff to me. Max grabbed my hand and she looked like she wanted to help, but when she tried they always got mad and sometimes hit her.

They took me to one of the big rooms. I think they have a bajillion of them in here. Then they strapped me to a table and the lady said "we're gonna put you on some anesthetic honey. I promise it's not scary", and then she smiled that creepy smile that they all have, and I wanted to tell her that it was already scary, but I couldn't move my mouth.

Then the lady put a big mask over my mouth and it got all dark, and she was like, "scalpel", but it sounded far away…

………………………..

I was lying on the table again, awake, but I couldn't open my eyes. I kept trying, until I heard the lady come over. I said "lady, why can't I open my eyes?" her voice sounded funny when she said, "your eyes are open, Iggy. Wide open."

3rd person:

It was a fairly simple procedure, and the doctors Heathrowe and Morticai knew it. All they had to do was get the blades behind the retinas, release the netting, and sever the cords. But no. Of course that simple task couldn't be accomplished without some imbecile screwing up!

Granted, it wasn't exactly their faults. If the experiment on the next table hadn't gone into myocardial infarction, they wouldn't have looked up, or in a moment of confusion, tightened their grip in the blades just too much, severing both optical cords before the netting was ready to bond them. But goodness! The child was totally and irreversibly blind! Forever! Jeb was ready to fry them.

Max POV:

They carried Iggy back into the room. He ran to me, stumbling and saying my name, like he couldn't find me. He came to me because I'm the oldest, so I'm like everybody's mommy. We don't have any real mommies, see.

When Iggy got to me, he looked really sad, so I hugged him, and he kinda collapsed into my lap, while I rocked him and he started crying. He whispered, "Max, I can't see anymore. I think it's forever." I was stunned. I whispered back "don't worry, we'll all help you. I promise, we'll be your eyes." I was a promise I hoped I'd be able to keep forever.

**So, this is my new version of this chapter. I'll list the reasons for changing it on my next chapter.**

**I've had to add all my slang into my dictionary. It's pretty funny what I can get away with now. None of the words in this had the stupid red underline.**

**Did you know that gmail counts review alerts as ongoing conversations? Took me so long to figure that out…… I was weirding out because so many pplz did story alert and stuff, but I could only find 2 reviews. Then I realized that I had about 9 backed up behind the first…..**

**R&R&R&R&R&R&R&R&R&R&R???? Prease? First 15 people to comment win 37 ½ Rosie fantabulous points! (And some free virtual tofu dogs!)**

**Return to Top**


	8. New Life

**Hiya all! I know I've been gone a long time, but I just finished a Shakespeare production, and this is my first fic that hasn't randomly slipped into Elizabethan English. Seriously. As probably none of you have noticed, I re-wrote the last chapter, and, as promised, here are the reasons.**

**The fans. I got a few reviews, one in particular, saying that the chapter wasn't up to scratch.**

**The personalities. After re-reading it, I realized that I had done the characters all wrong. Max was too selfish and annoying, Iggy was just not right.**

**The language. As cute as it sounded, a seven year old with accelerated brain function would not speak like the children in the fic did.**

**So I re-wrote it, and I like it much better now. If you haven't already, go read it now, because this chapter won't really make sense without it. On with the story.**

**Max POV:**

We all helped Iggy around, walking him around our room until he could do it himself, and then moving to the surrounding hallways. Iggy learned fast, and pretty soon he was visiting his old haunts with ease, even beginning to dabble in his old arts of bomb making. On these expeditions, little Gazzy followed along, tottering after him and watching excitedly as Iggy "made it go boomsplode."

I loved watching them, my family. We were so close, even though we really had nothing in common, apart from the wings and the living in cages part. As Fang had pointed out a few weeks ago, we were like a flock of birds, and from then on, I'd decided to call us the flock.

A little while later a whitecoat came to take me away. I tried to look brave as we went, because I wanted to be a good example, but also so that Jeb would be proud of me. I wish Jeb was my daddy, and that he'd take us all away.

I ran on the machine while the whitecoat adjusted my IV and put a new bag on, this one full of a blue-ish stuff. I started feeling really yucky. I think I must've fainted, because I woke up in another room with scrapes on my legs and chin.

A lady was standing over me and as soon as she saw I was awake, she started firing questions at me. "How are you feeling?" I still felt yucky. She asked a lot more questions, and then a guy told me he was going to have to filter my bloodstream. Ick. Good thing they put me back to sleep for that.

When they finally let me go, I went back into our room. It's a pretty simple room, and I know it by heart. It's white, with a low ceiling and not good light, and there are five dog crates with blankets in them along one wall. It's not very big, but it's been our home for 7 years.

Fang was sitting alone by himself, drawing with a notebook and pencil he'd stolen from the last whitecoat that took him. Nudge was trying to persuade Iggy to play patty cake with her, and Gazzy was teething on the bars of his crate. I had to laugh. They were so sweet. I hated seeing them here. I wished more than anything for an escape.

Jeb looked at his computer screen. If all were to go as planned, he would need to "run away" with the children soon. He needed a house to go to, one secluded, away from human activities, and he thought he had found the perfect one. All he needed to do now was close the deal.

Just as he was putting his hand back on his mouse, Herrington walked into the room. "Jeb." He said. "Urgent news." Jeb was instantly alert. Had something happened to the children? "It's your wife. She says she's pregnant." And Jeb's world exploded into a blast of joy and grief.

**YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! Tis done! If anyone is wondering what the blue stuff was, it's a solution made by doing fancy shtuff to crab's blood until only the base metal is left. That's right, folks, they were feeding copper into an eight-year-old's blood.**

**I only need 14 more reviews to get to a hundred, people! So let's try to top that!**

**R&R&R&R&R&R&R&R&R&R&R…to infinity and beyond!!!!!!**


	9. And the world comes crashing down

**So, I have another minor announcement. This is to a few people, you know who you are. Though I appreciate your interest in my story, swearing at me is NOT going to encourage me to write faster. In fact, it makes me a little pissed, and I might write slower just to spite you (hint hint) so, Don't bitch at me about how tired you are of waiting for this thing to come out, it hasn't been that long, I'm in the middle of painting the trim in my room, so my life is a little frazzled, and I'M the one writing the story, not you, so I think I've got the hard job there. **

**Thank you for your time.**

**Special Announcement: Gruesome content! Do not read if you are faint of heart. Or stomach. Throwing up on your computer tends to ruin it.**

Jeb felt a strange sense of deja vu walking down the white tiled corridor, but this time, he was in a real hospital, and the woman giving birth just moments away was his beloved wife, not an ex lab worker he had no feelings for.

The door swung open and he walked into the room, just as he had walked into a very similar room eight years ago. His wife's labored breathing was the only sound, and from the doctors' faces, he could tell something was going horribly wrong.

Before he had tome to ask, his wife let out one long, piercing scream, which echoed through his mind long after it had subsided. There was a wet ripping sound, and then the tiny squeals of a healthy newborn child filled the air. Jeb almost fell to the floor in relief.

But when he turned to the doctors, expecting the usual congratulations, he saw something that made his heart turn to ice. A flat red line, and the stiff bleeding corpse of the woman he had once loved. His world went black.

……………………………………………..

Jeb went to the funeral carrying the child Ari, who was unusually quiet as the husk his mother, who he was named for, had inhabited for so many years was lowered into the ground. As his father stood mourning in front of the elaborate tombstone, Ari reached out and touched the name, Ariana Batchelder, as if recognizing the significance of who lay beneath them.

Ari was unconscious by the time the tears finally began to slowly roll off of Jeb's cheeks and fall gracefully onto the ground, and he slept through the limo's descent on the gravelly path from the cemetery, leaving the newly filled grave and it's inhabitant far behind.

………………………………………………….

**Max POV:**

When Jeb came in carrying another baby, I assumed it was one of us. So when he told us it was his son, I was a little freaked. Jeb had a son? That meant he had a wife, and a house. I guess the kid made me realize that Jeb's whole life didn't revolve around us.

Harsh reality. Now I had someone competing for Jeb's affection. I didn't like it. I was supposed to be his favorite. I would have to try harder.

Jeb visited us with the kid often. I watched the kid, Ari, grow up as I watched my flock, his hair sprouting from his head, crawling steadily through the room. He learned to walk at the same time Gazzy began to mimic voices, and it fascinated him, though I knew Gazzy didn't know what he was saying half the time.

Meanwhile I knew they were trying to create more of us, more experiments. I'd seen some of the failures, and it was enough to make me sick.

One day they took me for another experiment. They put me in a cage to wait, right alongside another kid, a little boy with teeth like daggers and claws like knives, all flashing steel. He had no eyes.

As I sat in my cage, trying not to look at the kid, a horrible stench washed over me, and he began to softly scream. Not that you could tell he was screaming, he had a voice like sweet music, but I heard the underlying terror. I turned.

He was disintegrating. Parts of his skeleton became exposed through patches of skin. I bit my lip until it bled, unable to look away. When the whitecoats came back, there was nothing left of him but a puddle of sludge and still glinting steel bones.

They barely spared him a second glance as they pried me from my cage and dragged me, sobbing uncontrollably, away.

………………………………………

On Gazzy's second birthday, Jeb brought a lady into our room. Gazzy looked up at her and when he saw her, he cocked his head and looked confused. She was carrying a bundle in her arms. Jeb took it from her, whispered in her ear, and she left. Then he brought the baby over to me and knelt down so I could see.

It was a little girl, wisps of blond hair already framing her chubby face. Her blue eyes were open, a smile played across her features. Her white wings were slightly unfolded. She looked like the cherub from a book Jeb gave me. I could call her Cherub.

But a cherub was a baby angel, and if she grew up, she wouldn't want to be called that. Just Angel then. "Hello Angel." I said. Jeb smiled at me, and I took her into my arms.

………………………………………………

They finally made another successful mutant. I'm so scared. I was walking down the hallway, trying to escape Ari with Angel, who was a little slow for one of us, but growing fine and still liked to be carried.

I walked into a room and the door slammed behind me, locking me in. I heard voices outside, and a snarling sound. Going over to the window, I peered out into the night. Two men stood outside, each one with a button in his hand. The first man pushed his button, and a door swung open, what looked like chimpanzees running out.

I held my breath. The other man pushed and this time animals like I had never seen jumped out, snarling and gnashing their teeth. They looked like wolves, but they stood on two legs, and their hands and eyes were very human. Then they began to run, and the panicked hooting of chimp's filled the air.

I watched in horror as they were dismembered, torn open, shredded. One thing that was fairly close to my window was busily extracting all organs from the chimp's stomach. I clutched Angel tighter, making sure her head was below the window, but I could do nothing about the sound.

Then the wolf-thing looked up from his chimp, turning his head until he was looking right at me. He smiled. My scream echoed down the halls.

**So, with that crapload o' info, this is probably the longest chapter for this story. Yeah. And to clear up some confusion, if any should still exist, I noticed some of you were a little…confused in your reviews. (someone needs to lay off the caps lock key.) Jeb's wife (or as I like to call her, Random Generic Unseen Woman Number 5) Is NOT Dr. Martinez. She also is not the mother of Angel. HER child is a lovely little boy by the name of Ari. You might remember him? Hmm? Ah. Yes, people, Ari existed back then too. A few of you seemed to have forgotten.**

**By the way, sorry if I'm sounding all pissy, but my school starts in 2 days, and they're so stupid, they don't tell us our teachers or schedules until the first day, so I'm agitated about that. I guess I channeled some of that anger into my story, so sorry for the gruesomeness, I'll put a note at the top about not reading for the faint of heart.**

**R&R or die like that little kid. His name is Ian. You don't want to die like Ian, do you?**

**~Love ya!**


	10. Escape! part 1 of 3

It feels like years since I've written. I'm still not sure if this will be allowed to be put up, but the fact that I typed up my entire French conversation without fail was a good enough sign to coax me back onto this thing. So here, in all its glory, just for you, is another chapter.

**By the way, to those who haven't checked out my profile lately (it has a detailed description of my current situation):**

**My laptop is currently unserviceable, and I'm stuck on this monster of a computer, really old piece of barely functioning garbage, which is very difficult to write/post on.**

**Also, I guilted Iggy into commentating with me.**

**Iggy: Anything to get her off my case.**

**Me: He's just scared I'll bring out the chainsaw again.**

**Happity Howl-o-ween everbodies! (My birthday was the 29****th****! Squee. I survived another year!)**

3rd person POV:

Jeb stood in the doorway, watching the children sleep. He shifted his eyes to the hallway, checking for any wayward employees caught after hours, then picked up a small phone-like device.

His fingers flew over the keys, tapping out complicated numerical codes until it beeped quietly. Jeb nodded. This would disable the monitoring and alarm system for a short period of time.

He walked into the room and, in his calmest voice, said "children, get up. We're leaving." He opened up the doors to their crates, cringing at the sound of metal against metal as the hinges squealed open.

Six sets of rapidly blinking bleary eyes stared back at him. Angel was the first to crawl out, chubby hands clapping to see him. The others followed slowly, lining up in front of him, glancing warily around for anything that he might want to use on them.

He knelt before them, looking each one of them in the eye. "Listen. I'm going to take you away from here, far away, where no one can ever hurt you again." He offered Max his hand, and together they led the rest of the children down the hall.

Ten…nine…eight… the timer on the door counted down until it could reload and reboot its alarm. Jeb pulled Max around the last corner. Seven…six…five… the children broke into a run.

Four…three…two… they reached the door. One…Jeb grabbed the handle as the light signaling the reboot flashed. He pushed everyone through, slamming it closed just as the alarm began to activate.

"Run! We need to get away from here!" Jeb knew they had precious seconds before someone realized that the experiments were missing and sent the erasers after them.

He ushered them into the shadow of the dense forest around them, running into the dark, away from the place that had been their prison for ten long years.

One last pair of small feet pattered down the corridor, far behind the others. The little boy ran, tripping over his feet. He fell into the door, stretching on his toes to see through the window, the criss-crosses of chicken wire casting a latticework of shadows across his tearstained face as he watched the only family he had ever known disappear into the shadows.

"Dada.." he said, his voice choked with sobs, "why can't I come too?" and Ari collapsed against the door, howling with grief for things he could barely comprehend.

I was really worried about writing this chapter, because I knew how hard it would be for me to write the end.

**Sorry it's short, I'd planned for a longer chapter, but I needed to end it there. More to come soon.**

**On a happier note, I got onto the costume design team for the school play at the local public high school. : )**

**Iggy: And you're gonna screw it up, because you're afraid of the guy you're working with.**

**Me: I find it very hard to talk to a six-foot-five guy with bright orange hair and fangs, yes. He's intimidating. He's a really nice person, but he's intimidating.**

**(And yes, he has for real fangs. Like, professional dental work sorta fangs.)**

**R&R&R&R&R&R???? Huh??? Will yah??? Prease????**


	11. Escape! part 2 of 3

**I'm back! And ready for action. And I probably need to explain why I was gone so long. **

**So basically, I was on a bad computer and thus posting less anyway, and then THAT computer got a virus that cut it off from the internet, so I couldn't post stories, and my mom's computer had an incompatible MS Word system, so I couldn't transfer them. And, in the middle of this, I was busy transferring out of school. So, now I'm self-directing at an alternative learning center, and still getting my bearings. But anyway I got a new laptop for Christmas, so I'll probably be posting more often.**

**Max POV:**

why is it that things just never turn out the way they're supposed to? Our daring getaway was supposed to end with a dramatic peelout in a black car. (just like in that movie we saw when Jeb snuck us into the projector room)

Well, we got the peelout, but things went south after that. Because we needed to get far away. But cars need gas, and people need food, so we had to stop at a couple gas stations.

When we'd been going for one and a half days straight on the highway (over eighty the whole way) they found us. We were all clustered around the counter of the Dunkin' Donuts in the back, drooling over the sprinkly goodness, when we heard a bang from the front, and then the rat-a-tat-a-tat of machine gun fire.

Looking around a corner we saw six beautiful men, holding guns. There was something wolfish in their features. I grabbed Iggy's hand and vaulted over the counter, pushed open the emergency exit door (causing several high pitched alarms to go off) and barreled into the parking lot.

The good thing was, we weren't very far from the "safe" house Jeb was taking us to. I was counting on there being forestation behind the gas station, like there had been behind every other gas station we'd been to so far. I was lucky. Jeb ran over to me. "Run, Maximum. The safe house is that way." He pointed across the trees."

I ran. Sharp stones dug into my bare feet, and I was shivering in my thin nightdress. I looked around. Jeb had Angel on his shoulders and Fang was holding Iggy's hand, steering him along. Gazzy and Nudge were running alongside Jeb, each one clutching his hand. I sighed with relief, glad to see that my family had all escaped.

That's when I heard them. Heavy footfalls, off in the distance, and the scarily human sounding growls of the Erasers. I sped up, adrenaline careening through my veins, and wove a seemingly drunken path through the old twisted pines.

_Lose them lose them lose them_. My conscious mind had shut off and I was riding on a wave of pure instinct. _Lose them lose them lose them_. But even as I triedto run, I could hear them drawing ever nearer. _Lose them lose them lose them_.

In a desperate ditch attempt, I shimmied up the tree nearest to me. Trying to hold the breath that was burning in my throat, I clung to the trunk, watching the ground beneath me. Four hulking shapes passed under my branch.

I let out my breath and began inching along the branch, carefully pulling my way along to where it and a brach on the next tree overlapped. In this way I began to crawl along, making my way through the woods toward the direction Jeb had told us to go if we were lost.

Lost! The sudden realization came to me and I had to collapse against the tree and steady myself. I had been so caught up in losing the Erasers that in doing so, I had also lost my family.

Without thinking I dropped to the ground and began running in the other direction, squinting to see them in the far-off darkness. That's when I realized that it wasn't that dark anymore, the sun was rising right in front of me. Which was bad, because it meant that I had been going in the wrong direction.

I turned, trying to right my course, and almost came face to face with an Eraser who was staring in the other direction. I skidded to a stop, praying that he hadn't heard me coming, and raced around to a denser tree cover.

There was a loud baying sound. Dogs? When did they get dogs? Oh crap. I heard them coming closer, I could practically smell the excitement on their rancid breath. They thought my capture was inevitable. I was about to prove them wrong.

I shot out of the tree cover like a bat out of hell, my legs moving so fast I could barely feel the touch of ground beneath my feet. I wished I could turn around to see their startled faces as they wondered how I had gotten past them, but I just kept running. That was the closest they'd ever come to me. That was when it hit me. I could die tonight.

The funny thing about imminent death is that it snaps everything into perspective. All the pain from the running and being whipped by branches, the burning ache in my chest, all became insignificant as I poured my heart into staying alive.

The baying sound was coming closer. I pumped my arms, willing my legs to go faster. _Dogs dogs, o away, let me live another day._

Far up ahead, I thought I saw some light in the trees. A clearing! If I could just get there. In one final burst of speed I propelled myself through the least few trees into the watery early morning sunlight.

And almost fell off a cliff. The sheer, dizzying, god-knows-how-many hundred foot drop loomed before me. Across the canyon yawning up at me, I thought I could see a house.

Behind me the Erasers burst through the trees. I did the only thing I could think of. I turned around and with a last farewell nod to my foes, I tipped backwards off the cliff. _Here goes nothing._

I unfurled my wings. Ow. Unfurling wings in the air hurts-do not try this at home. I flapped my wings, for the first time enjoying the sensation of the open air on them, I hadn't had enough space to open them fully since I was three years old. I waved conspiratorially at the Erasers. _Not today, jerks. I'm not going to die today._

**I have to disclaim a couple of the quotes up there. They're not mine.**

**Anyway, I planned to write the escape all in one chapter, but I ended up needing to cut it up. So the escape is in three parts. The third is coming soon and may be shorter than this.**

**Hope you liked it.**

**R&R?**


	12. Goodbye

**It's been over a year since I joined FanFiction. It was a crazy year, an awesome year, both the best and worst year of my life. But a year is a long time for a teenager, and within this past year I've encountered obstacles that are making it hard to continue on FF. Not bad things, no messy breakups or anything like that, but since I joined my life has really changed (for the better) and I need to do other things. I've loved writing here, I loved all the comments, flames and compliments alike, and I've loved the feeling of being connected. I'll be sad to let this go, but this is a part of me that I feel I have to leave behind as I journey through life. So from now on, all stories are finished, all of this is done. I'm leaving the account up with everything I've written on it, because I can't bear to get rid of it just yet, so you can still go back through what is written if you want. I'll miss this. Goodbye.**

** Write on.**

** Poisonrose.**


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